What makes children thin?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
What makes children thin? Genetic and behavioural correlates of wasting: a pilot study with children attending a tertiary feeding clinic
IRAS ID
290906
Contact name
Charlotte Wright
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 4 months, 27 days
Research summary
Thinness occurs as a result of undereating, but it is not always clear why an individual child has not eaten enough, or how to get them to eat more. There is a need to understand the child characteristics that predispose to undereating and the how these operate, in order to design more effective treatment and prevention programmes. The Glasgow feeding clinic (GFC)looks after a range of children with severe feeding problems who commonly have low appetite and extreme thinness. We want to find out if these children are more likely to carry genetic markers of thinness and whether thin children respond to food in the same way, using an established method to assess energy compensation
A Ghanaian student will come to Glasgow to learn these techniques to use in her future PhD research. She will conduct a pilot study of children attending the GFC. She will invite 40 families to complete an online questionnaire about their child’s eating behaviour and collect a saliva sample from their child, sent by post. She will identify how many genetic markers for thinness each carries and relate this to their appetite scores and existing growth measurements as well as their feeding history.
A standardised energy compensation study will then be undertaken in 10 of the thinnest children. At two visits a week apart, the children will be given one of two similar tasting drinks in random order, one with very few calories and another with extra, without them knowing which is which. After an hour they will eat as much as they want of a buffet breakfast. All foods and drinks offered will be weighed before and after, to calculate the amount of energy eaten in total after the low energy drink, compared to the high energy drink.REC name
West of Scotland REC 3
REC reference
21/WS/0037
Date of REC Opinion
30 Apr 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion